I was in my office bright and early Monday morning. After a weekend spent researching and learning more than I ever thought I would know about toxic chemicals, I only had a few finishing touches left to put on my report.

It was a report I had decided to write myself without Devon’s instruction, but I hoped he would be happy with it. Especially when he saw that the result of my research suggested there was some serious corruption occurring.

He probably had some kind of an idea that it was, but proof was always good. Well, kind of proof. Very circumstantial proof that he couldn’t do a lot with.

I forced myself to keep working on it, even when I realized that he probably knew most of it.

My meeting with Devon was scheduled at 1:00, and I barely finished the report before then. I hadn’t even eaten lunch when I found myself knocking on the door to his office.

“Come in.”

I paused for a second to get my breath back, and my mind remembered the worst possible thing: early Saturday morning lying on my couch, touching myself and moaning his name. Pretending my fingers were his.

By the time I pushed the door, I was blushing hard enough to heat the room.

“Nikki,” Devon said, looking up with a smile. “I heard you wanted to see me.”

“Yes, that’s why I scheduled a meeting with Maureen.”

My sentence sounded far ruder than I wanted it to, but Devon ignored it. “Have a seat.”

I sat at the small table near his desk, spreading my papers in front of me while he finished up something on his computer. When he joined me, I was busy rehearsing what I would say, and his scent suddenly hit me. It was masculine, woodsy, with an underlying spice – it was overwhelming.

The whole point of rehearsing was to avoid running out of things to say, but I was immediately struggling.

“What’s all this?”

He reached out to take one of the documents, but I pulled it back. “No, wait, there’s an order,” I stammered.

His chuckle made me feel like an idiot.

“Okay,” I finally said, “I’m ready.”

I looked up at him, he looked back at me with raised eyebrows. Talk, you idiot, I told myself.

I cleared my throat. “So, I was thinking about the land you were going to buy, and I wanted to know more about the EPA rules surrounding it. So, I got in contact with a guy at the EPA who gave me the number for an activist. He sent me these.”

Devon looked almost bored when I glanced up at him as I slid a piece of paper across the small table. When he read it, he didn’t seem to be shocked at all.

Wow, I was off to a great start.

“I appreciate you doing this, Nikki,” he said, “But we know the previous factory left toxic chemicals behind. That’s not news to us.”

“No, I know, but I’ve got more. There’s also this one.”

I slid another piece of paper across, and he paid a little more attention. “This one shows some of the chemicals that were there as recently as a year ago, even after the local government hired a clean-up crew.”

“That can’t be right,” Devon mused, picking the paper up and reading it closely. I worked to keep myself from getting too excited. “There was a report afterwards saying that most of the chemicals were easily removed, and the rest could be cleared by whoever owned the land.”

“Yes, this report. Have a look at who wrote it.”

Devon’s eyes widened as he read the name of the author. “Markos is a familiar surname. Any relation to William?”

“Well, I don’t know. Not yet, anyway. But what I do know, is that this report doesn’t actually say a lot, even though it’s long. Basically, it says that the land could be freed of chemicals, and that it’ll be easy to do. There’s not much evidence for that.”

“Okay, okay,” Devon said, leaning back and looking above my head. His lips pursed together, and I knew he was thinking deeply. I also knew I had to look away so that I could concentrate rather than getting distracted by the sexy stubble lining his jaw, or the way his crisp white shirt stretched across the muscles of his chest.

“Let me get this straight: The EPA is relying on this report to decide what to do with the land. The report just happens to say what Iris and Markos want it to say, and it just happens to have been written by someone with the same surname.”

I nodded as he stopped to think before his train of thought continued. “The contents of the report aren’t exactly Earth-shattering, and they’re not enough to overturn the EPA’s original decision, but the decision was still overturned. The bottom line is that the land should still be zoned heavy industrial.”

“Exactly. And I can prove that, because these soil samples were taken by that activist I told you about.”

Devon leaned forward again as I passed a small stack of papers, each one containing a “before and after” graph.

I watched as he stared at each one for a few seconds before turning to the next page, taking in all the information I had found. It had taken more time and effort than almost anything else I had done, but a feeling of pride welled within me.

The man I had been trying to impress since the beginning was finally taking my efforts seriously. Even better, they were my efforts alone – I hadn’t even been asked to do it.

At long last, he spoke again. “These graphs – can we trust them?”

I heard the word “we”, and had to stop the rush of blood to my head. I needed to concentrate.

“I think so. They activist gave them to me, and he said he’s got certificates from the lab for all of them if we need.”

“Maybe. They’re certainly interesting. If they’re correct, it means the toxins in the soil hardly changed after the clean-up, so the report we’re suspicious of seems like an outright lie. If they’re accurate, we can use this information to show that Markos shouldn’t be using this land for the residential buildings he wants. If they’re accurate.”

“The activist has been used in the media before, so he’s not some crazy guy yelling at clouds.”

Devon didn’t say anything, but he kept going through the graphs. I knew each one like the back of my hand after spending so much time staring at them all, and I was glad they were as useful to him as they were to me.

Basically, they showed that the toxins in the soils were about the same after the clean-up as before. When the report suggested that the clean-up had made a “big” improvement, it was clearly lying.

If we could prove that the report was a lie, we could go a long way toward showing corruption at the EPA division that handled this land zoning.

“So,” I said quietly while Devon continued reading, “I’ve come up with a strategy to use this new information. The goal is to have it zoned heavy industrial again like it should always have been, right?”

“Well, there’s lots of goals here,” Devon said, not looking up. “But something like that, yeah.”

“Okay, well, in order to do that, we need to show the public that the zone never should have changed. And to do that, I think we could use your own marketing department. Well, one of the people in it, at least.”

He finally looked up at me, confusion written on his face. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, Jennifer in the junior marketing team told me she wants to make a difference, and I believe her. She definitely seems to be a little different from the rest who just want to pad their CVs. So, we could use her marketing knowledge to start a public awareness campaign that will force the EPA to act.”

Devon smiled. I melted.

“That’s a good plan, Nikki, but it’s a little early for that. We need to be sure we’re accurate here, otherwise we run the risk of looking like idiots. Believe me, that’s not something I’m going to endure after that meeting with Markos.”

Was Devon opening up to me? Telling me he had looked like an idiot after that meeting? I wanted to press that particular line of conversation, but I didn’t dare.

“What else have you got there?” His voice was gruff again

He nodded at the papers sitting in front of me, and I felt myself blush. “Oh, nothing.”

Thinking about all the work I’d put into the papers I was trying to hide from him, I felt like a fool. Of course, we were going to have to prove the accuracy of our accusations before we went public with them. Why had I thought we would jump straight into action this very Monday afternoon?

Devon clearly wasn’t going to heed my brush off. I waited in silent embarrassment as he stood and walked around the little table. When he was behind me, he leaned down by my left side with his arm lightly around my shoulder, and I felt myself stiffen.

His touch brought my fantasy from the other night flooding back. He was so near. I could feel the warmth of his body against me. Suddenly, my mind was not on the papers in front of me at all.

But when he began spreading the pages out, I knew he was going to laugh at me. After all, I had completely jumped the gun in formulating a marketing plan.

I wasn’t even a marketer.

“This is good,” he said, his voice low with surprise as he read over my shoulder.

He was probably just being polite, but his arm around me was making it tough to think straight. If I was able to use my brain, I might have gathered up the papers and his office in a hurry.

But I sat there, frozen by his touch, and waited to see if he would admonish me.

“You know, I’m impressed, Nikki. We can’t use this marketing plan, but it would be a good one if we could.”

I spun my head to look at him as he stood back a little, his arm still warmly around me. “Really? You’d use it?”

“I don’t see why not. You’ve covered all the bases.”

I stared up at him, he stared down at him. All I could focus on were his eyes, looking directly into mine as though he were reading my thoughts. The only thing that mattered was how close his lips were to mine, closing in ever so slightly, as if he were about to kiss me.

What the f-.

His lips pressed against mine as they had been threatening to, but it still caught me completely by surprise. He slowly, gently kissed me, his lips moving lightly over mine, and I struggled to breathe as though I had been dunked in ice cold water.

The feel of his hand sliding lower over my shoulder, moving toward the swelling of my breast beside my arm, dragged me out of my trance. My first thought was to run, to stop doing whatever we were doing, but my second was much happier: I’m making out with Devon Carell.

Well, kind of. He was making out with me. I was sitting still, thinking about what we were doing like an idiot.

I rectified that situation quickly. When my lips moved in time with his, it seemed to be the sign he was looking for because he suddenly turned to face me completely as his tongue slipped into my mouth.

Oh god, I thought, suddenly worried about hyperventilating. If I did that, would he stop? I hoped not, but the chances were high.

To keep my mind off my unusual breathing pattern, I turned in my seat and reached out until I had two handfuls of his shirt. My movements were far more needful than I intended, but it seemed to do the trick I hadn’t even thought of. It seemed to tell him I was as into this as he was, and he instantly took the hint.

I found myself floating for a few seconds, and it wasn’t until my feet touched the ground again that I realized he had lifted me clean out of the chair. He placed me against his desk, my feet finally safely on the carpet and my ass almost painfully against the wooden furniture.

His eyes focused firmly on me, so much so that I was only vaguely aware of his hands finding their way underneath my shirt. My eyes locked on his, taking in the sight of hunger and need that I was sure he would be able to see in me.

It sent a thrill through me to think that I was having anywhere near the same effect on him as he was having on me.

His hands moved immediately to my breasts, cupping and squeezing them firmly. I could feel small jolts of pleasure coursing through my body, starting at the nipples each time he put pressure on them underneath my clothing.

Suddenly, his touch and the strong, eager expression on his face made me want nothing more than to be out of my clothes. To be completely nude and open to the touch of his fingers, tongue or anything else he wanted to use.

I wanted to be his. I, Nikki – wait, Nicole – Blythe, wanted to be Devon Carell’s… whatever. Mistress? No, that’s only when they’re married. Girlfriend? No, that’s what they say in high school.

Sex toy? Sure. Whatever.

My mind was so busy naming whatever this was that I was surprised by the feeling of his hand firmly moving into my panties. The new pressure around my waist took a second to figure out, and that was when I realized he had hiked my skirt right up to get access to what he wanted. I had completely missed him doing that while my mind tried to decide on my title.

This was the same thing I wanted, only I wasn’t focused enough to give it to him.

Thankfully, Devon Carell was proving himself to be the kind of man who would take it anyway. I was both grateful and completely unsurprised.

I moaned loudly against his mouth when his fingertips grazed my clit. This time it was real, not just me pretending. It was real and it was so much better.

I was forced to stop kissing him so that my mouth could hang open. It was all it was capable of as his fingers worked expertly over my pussy, giving me pleasure that rivalled anything I could give myself.

“Fuck,” I whispered, trembling already. If I was on the verge of losing control now, how was I going to be if we went any further?

Through hazy vision, I saw him pull his face back to look at me. His eyes were smiling now, but his mouth was nearly smirking. A very tiny, instantly ignored part of me wanted to tell it was rude to look like that at a girl who was desperate to give herself to him.

He’s going to fuck me, I thought, my body shaking. My legs were fast becoming like jelly, and I had to reach down to take the tightest grip on the desk that I could possibly manage. It wasn’t going to be enough, but I forced myself to hold on.

I needed to hold on for only a few more seconds, and then I knew I was going to have the orgasm of a lifetime. As he stared, and I stared back with my mouth wide open, I could feel it building within me. My toes began to move on their own, stretching and clenching as though it was too much for them.

They needed to shut up, because I wasn’t going to let this stop for anything.

“Fuck,” I groaned, making Devon’s smug smile wider.

I couldn’t breathe properly. I couldn’t see properly. I definitely couldn’t keep my balance on jelly legs for much longer.

But it didn’t matter. Devon’s eyes narrowed and his look grew more intense. It felt like this had suddenly become serious for him. He was a little late to the party, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was that I was about to orgasm, and I was going to do it on his fast and perfectly rhythmic fingers.

“Come for me, Nikki,” he said, staring at me as his warm, husky words washed over every inch of my body.

It was the only sound I could hear as I involuntarily threw my head back, the violence of it almost painful. My hips shoved themselves forward, as though trying to get more of him inside me as I came for him. Just like he told me to.

My body shuddered and convulsed, and I was vaguely aware that it was trying to throw itself off the desk. Devon’s long, strong arm snaked around my waist, holding me up to prevent me from falling to the ground mid-orgasm.

Stars seemed to dance in front of my eyes as I fought for breath, but the fact that I could hardly breathe didn’t matter. All that mattered was the violent pleasure threatening to destroy my mind as I knew it.

“Good girl, Nikki,” he whispered, his lips touching my ear and building my orgasm ever higher.

Every muscle in my body threatened to snap, and all I could think of was the sound of him. Even the feel of him was forgotten for a moment, but only a moment.

I probably screamed, but I wasn’t aware of it. The orgasm tearing through me lasted for so long that I wondered if I was going to lose consciousness, and then the second one appeared before the first had finished.

When the waves finally finished crashing over me, I felt like a new woman. I wasn’t the shy, retiring Nicole Blythe anymore. I wasn’t the girl who desperately wanted to impress her boss, and who would quietly sit in the background hoping it would happen.

I was Nikki Blythe, the intern who needed to be fucked by the boss. When my eyes opened and my head returned to a more normal position, I looked him dead in the eyes and said something I never would have expected. “Please fuck me, Devon.”